Ipswich boxing club needs new home to support kids in Ipswich
Ipswich Boxing Club coaches a mixture of young people and adults in Nacton, Ipswich. Picture: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
A boxing club in Ipswich is hoping to secure a new venue to continue their work with youngsters in the Ipswich community.
Ipswich boxing club held theri annual showcase in Ipswich in November 2018. Picture: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
Ipswich Boxing Club currently holds its training sessions at Inspire Suffolk on Lindbergh road, a space that is not suitable for coaching the range of ages and abilities that the club sees.
Despite having stores full of boxing equipment, the club are back to basics while they look for a new venue, using some gloves and simple equipment like cones to train their members.
Donna Harvey-Arnell, who coaches at the club, says that training sessions need to stay in the Nacton area of town to continue to help local children.
She said: “Our number on aim is to keep kids off the street. To teach them to respect, discipline and self worth. “It is amazing when you get a kid in here who has been told they aren’t good enough at school and you tell them well done, their face lights up.
Fighter from Ipswich competed against fighters from across the country. Picture: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
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“We are really grateful that we can use the space at Inspire Suffolk but it isn’t appropriate to teach 20 people in. There isn’t a ring or any bags, so it’s quite challenging for us as coaches to keep them interested.
“We have the equipment in storage we just don’t have a place where we can set it up.”
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The club lost its former premises, Foxhall Community Centre, which was on the site of the old St Clement’s hospital, in 2017 before moving to Inspire Suffolk in January 2018.
Now, the club are looking for a new home where they can set up more permanently.
Ipswich Boxing club held its 2018 boxing showcase at the Copdock Hotel in Ipswich. Picture: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
Club secretary, Martin Cherington said: “We identified a place that was being sold when we left. The sale didn’t happen but it is still our favourite location for the club.
“We don’t mind if we find a place for a year and then we have to leave again. It doesn’t take us long to set up, we need somewhere where we can use the equipment that we have.
“We have a healthy bank account so we have the means to pay for a place but the problem we have now is that I need to show companies and bursaries that we are spending money that we have been given, and at the moment we aren’t.”
A Ipswich Borough Council spokesman said: “We are in continuing discussions with the club to see if we can help them meet their aspirations.”
The boxing club is based in Nacton. Picture: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
Fighters are coached in sessions by a range of experience boxing coaches. Picture: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY - Credit: Archant
